Quotes About Politics

My brother always says that real power is not brokered in public.

What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.

Ankh-Morpork had dallied with many forms of government and had ended up with that form of democracy known as One Man, One Vote. The Patrician was the Man; he had the Vote.

Listen, Peaches, trickery is what humans are all about, said the voice of Maurice. They're so keen on tricking one another all the time that they elect governments to do it for them.

Vimes had once discussed the Ephebian idea of 'democracy' with Carrot, and had been rather interested in the idea that everyone had a vote until he found out that while he, Vimes, would have a vote, there was no way in the rules that anyone could prevent Nobby Nobbs from having one as well. Vimes could see the flaw there straight away.

Taxation is just a sophisticated way of demanding money with menaces.

What a place! What a situation! What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.

Well, he thought, so this is diplomacy. It's lying, only for a better class of people.

I heard the Empire has a tyrannical and repressive government! What form of government is that? said Ponder Stibbons. A tautology, said the Dean, from above.

Bandits and governments 'ave so much in common that they might be interchangeable anywhere in the world...

I like the idea of democracy. You have to have someone everyone distrusts, said Brutha. That way, everyone's happy.

The politics of wizardry were either very simple, and resolved by someone ceasing to breathe, or as complex as one ball of yarn in a room with three bright-eyed little kittens.

We put all our politicians in prison as soon as they're elected. Don't you?' 'Why?' 'It saves time.

You had to stop discussing politics or you would run right into it, causing no damage to anything but yourself.

It's political, sir. Apparently he wants a return to the values and traditions that made the city great, sir.' 'Does he know what those values and traditions were?' said Vimes, aghast. 'I assume so, sir,' said Carrot, keeping a straight face. 'Oh my gods. I'd rather take a chance on the lobsters.

Our rivers are shrinking. Our lands are blowing away. And our lawmakers from our president to our legislators, both federal and state, are in denial of the one hard fact: We must change our lives, our politics, our beliefs, our actions, if we are going to survive.

The erosion of democracy and decency feels like a widening crack on the face of liberty.

Az alkotmány mérsékelt zsarnokság, országgy?léssel enyhítve, amelynek tagjait vagy megválasztják, vagy nem.

I also hold a settling of questions by the referendum to be an unsatisfactory procedure, because there are no simple political questions which can be answered merely by Yes and No. The masses are also more prone even than Parliaments to be led away by heterodox opinions, and to be swayed by vigorous ranting. It is impossible to formulate a wise internal or external policy in a popular assembly.

In Chicago the two roads to distinction were politics and trade. In New York the roads were any one of a half-hundred, and each had been diligently pursued by hundreds, so that celebrities were numerous. The sea was already full of whales. A common fish must needs disappear wholly from view — remain unseen. In other words, Hurstwood was nothing.

We all lose when we think that everything people in our party do and say is right and everything people in another party do and say is wrong. This is simply not true. If we think, speak, and act only along party lines, we operate like a machine without insight, without understanding, without compassion.

The reality is, to watch Jon Stewart, you already have to have watched the news. In other words, it's not funny if he does a joke about John McCain and they don't know who John McCain is.

Jon Tester became a multi-millionaire in the Senate, even bought a Cosmopolitan Castle on Capitol Hill. I don't want a castle in Washington, and I don't think becoming a senator should make you rich enough to buy one.

I'm thinking of trying to talk Jonathan Toews into running for Congress. We could use him.